Biden administration officially proposes to resume nuclear talks with Iran

WASHINGTON – The United States took a major step on Thursday towards reinstating the Iran nuclear deal that the Trump administration abandoned, offering to join European nations in what would be the first substantial diplomacy with Tehran in addition to four years, Biden administration officials said.

In a series of moves designed to deliver on one of President Biden’s most important campaign promises, the administration has moved away from the Trump administration’s efforts to restore United Nations sanctions against Iran. This effort separated Washington from its European allies.

And at the same time, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told EU foreign ministers on Thursday morning that the United States would join them in seeking to restore the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which , according to him, was “a key achievement of multilateral diplomacy.” “

Hours later, Enrique Mora, the European Union’s Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, called on the original signatories to the nuclear deal to save it from a “critical moment”.

“Intense talks with all participants and the United States”, Mr. Mora said on Twitter. “I am ready to invite them to an informal meeting to discuss the way forward.”

But it was not clear whether the Iranians would agree. The first obstacle to restoring the deal can be a politically sensitive dance of who comes first. And the Biden administration has other goals that include extending and deepening the deal in an effort to curb Iran’s growing missile capability and its continued support for terrorist groups and the Syrian government. by Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Biden said he would only lift sanctions imposed by President Donald J. Trump if Iran returned to the nuclear production limits it had observed until 2019.

As part of the original 2015 deal, Iran shipped 97% of its nuclear fuel out of the country and agreed to strict limits on new production that would essentially ensure that it would take a year or more to produce enough. material for a single weapon. In return, the world powers lifted international sanctions that had choked the Iranian economy. But when he took office, Trump unilaterally reinstated U.S. sanctions, arguing the deal was flawed.

Iran said the United States was the first to violate the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal and would only come back into compliance after America reversed course and allowed it to sell fuel. oil and to conduct banking operations around the world. A senior Biden administration official said Thursday evening that closing that gap would be a “laborious” process.

The announcement will open what will likely be a delicate set of diplomatic offers. A State Department official said the United States had no indication Iran would accept the offer, and warned that the prospect of a meeting was a first step in what would be a long and difficult process towards restoring the nuclear deal.

The offer comes days before Sunday’s deadline when Iran said it would ban international inspectors from visiting undeclared nuclear facilities and from conducting unannounced inspections of nuclear sites if the United States does not lift the sanctions reimposed by the Trump administration.

Such inspections, mandated by the nuclear deal, are essential to the international community’s understanding of Iran’s progress towards a weapons capability. The State Department official said Thursday’s offer to meet was not specifically intended to prevent Iran from taking the step, as the United States would not offer a concession to prevent an action it said. Iran has no reason to take it in the first place.

The official also did not provide details on what proposals the United States might bring forward in early meetings with Iran and the Europeans.

The fight over who moves first will only be the first of many obstacles. And with a presidential election just four months away in Iran, it was unclear whether the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the country’s political and military leaders would fully support re-engagement with the United States.

A second senior official in the Biden administration said the negotiations would take place if other world powers, including China and Russia, were part of them. That left open the question of whether the regional powers excluded in the latest deal – Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United Arab Emirates – would play a role.

The State Department said Iran must return to full compliance with the deal – as the Biden administration has insisted – before the United States lifts a number of US economic sanctions that Mr. Trump has imposed. imposed on Tehran, crippling the Iranian economy.

By then, and in a gesture of goodwill, the Biden administration withdrew a request last fall that the United Nations Security Council apply international sanctions against Iran for violating the original agreement of 2015 which limited its nuclear program.

Almost every other country had dismissed the Trump administration’s insistence that the United States could invoke the so-called instant sanctions because they were no longer part of the deal.

In addition, the Biden administration is lifting travel restrictions on Iranian officials seeking to enter the United States to attend UN meetings, the official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the announcement of actions.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on twitter that Tehran was waiting for US and European officials to “demand an end to Trump’s legacy of #Economic terrorism against Iran.”

“We will follow ACTION with action,” Mr. Zarif tweeted.

Asked whether the United States has already had preliminary diplomatic communications with Iran, the State Department official did not respond specifically, only saying that the administration had consulted widely on the matter.

European officials, who more than a year ago formally accused Tehran of violating the deal by compiling and enriching nuclear fuel beyond the deal’s limits, had largely been left to fend for themselves. hold together. Hoping that the deal would be restored once Mr Trump left office, officials in the UK, France and Germany delayed the implementation of a dispute settlement mechanism to punish Iran for violating several times since then the deal.